Legion of Lions
by Spironax
Summary: Getting not a single letter from his two best friends all summer after telling them of the events of the graveyard where he and Cedric managed to escape, Harry finds himself under scrutiny by the Ministry and presumed a lunatic by the world, without Ron or Hermione at his side, finding only a few staunch supporters to begin with.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **A/N: So. In case anyone who followed/favorited this got notified about this, there's nothing new in the chapter, just fixed a few grammatical mistakes, and changed something about the fine Sirius paid which I'll reference in a reply to the review which brought this issue to light when I publish chapter 3. Enjoy**

* * *

Harry recognized the pull of a Portkey too late, as did Cedric, and a second later, they were gone, still clinging to the Tri-Wizard cup. They hit the ground hard, smooth dirt beneath them under the night sky. Looking around, Harry realized they were in a graveyard. Grabbing Cedric, he dove behind the biggest headstone he saw, worriedly trying to piece it together.

"Cedric can you Apparate?" He whispered, a little bit of light reflecting off the older boy's face.

"Yes but I don't know how to take someone side along." He replied, looking around frantically as he held his wand out.

"Get as close to Hogwarts as possible and get help. Go!" Harry urged. Cedric nodded after a second, knowing he couldn't do much more.

Harry watched as with a loud crack, Cedric disappeared, and he knew that if whoever brought him here didn't know where he was before, he did now. He looked around the headstone and saw a hooded figure approaching him. Figuring it was his best bet, he took his wand in his hand and spun around.

"Stupefy!" He shouted, a streak of red light hitting the figure, who promptly collapsed.

"Worthless." Harry froze as he recognized the hissing voice with an itch in his scar, the same one from his first year, which had come from the back of Quirell's head. Before he could react, Harry felt a spell hit him, and he found himself unable to move, bound entirely by magic. He saw another figure hauling him to a headstone with the name 'Thomas Riddle' engraved on it. He was hefted up against it and chained to it with his arms by his sides and his wand lying in the dirt below his feet.

He could hear a cauldron simmering nearby, and turning his neck, saw a thick, clear potion bubbling in it over purple flames, right by a bundle of cloth that looked like it had a baby nestled in it, from whence emerged a noise of pain. Harry winced as his scar started burning, giving him an inkling as to what was in the bundle.

"It is ready milord." The second hooded figure told the bundle, letting his hood fall and revealing him as the figure Harry had seen in the Pensieve, Barty Crouch Jr. He hadn't bothered about the other hooded figure who was lying unconscious on the ground. His hood had fallen, revealing the rat like face of Peter Pettigrew.

"Begin." The bundle hissed again, causing Harry's scar to flare up once more.

"Bone of the father, give unknowingly," Crouch spoke, tossing a human bone into the cauldron and picking up a knife. "Flesh of the servant, given willingly."

Harry watched in horror as with a stifled scream, the man cut his arm off at the wrist and let his hand drop into the cauldron, still holding the knife as he turned to him, swallowing something from a bottle.

"Blood of an enemy, given unwillingly." He walked over to the a squirming harry, and holding his arm still, made a small gash in his arm from whence blood started to trickle out, which he collected in a small glass flask. Taking it to the cauldron, he poured it in as the liquid grew dark. Turning to the bundle, he picked it up carefully and unwrapped it, revealing a figure that was the size of a baby, with weak, frail limbs, and an oversized head with a flat snakelike face. He dropped the figure into the cauldron, avoiding touching any of the solution, and stepped back, kneeling. The air around Harry seemed to grow heavy as a figure rose from the Cauldron, picking up the discarded bundle and shook it out into the robe it was, donning it.

Standing in front of Harry was the new incarnation of Tom Marvolo Riddle. His body was pale and sickly, and under the moonlight, looked like it was slightly blue. His head was bald, and his nose nonexistent. His eyes were more slit like, and red. Lord Voldemort had risen once more.

The burning in his scar was constant now as Voldemort pointed a wand that was handed to him at Harry and the chains released him, leaving him scrambling to get his own wand pointed at the snakelike man as Crouch retreated to a corner, starting to writhe in agony from the loss of his limb. He slowly circled around until he realized there was nothing he could do, finding himself standing by the unconscious figure of Wormtail.

"I have traveled further down the road to immortality than anyone who has ever existed. I am the most powerful Wizard since Grindelwald, and quite possibly since before him! A mere child could never kill me." He cackled as Harry tried to stop himself from doubling over from the pain in his scar, barely succeeding.

"You may not fall at the hands of young Mr. Potter, but perhaps you would consent to fall at mine Tom." Harry looked up to see a light blue cloak adorned with sparkling silver stars, worn by none other than Albus Dumbledore.

"You old fool. AVADA KEDAVRA!" a beam of green light was sidestepped by Dumbledore, saving him as Harry felt a hand close around his leg. Ignoring it, he fired a spell futilely as Dumbledore sidestepped yet another killing curse. A bolt of red energy from his wand met the next sickly green spell and caught it in the middle of the graveyard, tangling with it as each wizard fought to overpower the other. Harry felt another hand grip his shoulder as he focused solely on the spell, and then he was gone.

Moments later, Harry materialized on a stage opposite the labyrinth, an unconscious but stirring Pettigrew holding his leg and Dumbledore with a hand on his shoulder. Sitting on the ground by the podium was Cedric Diggory.

"Minerva, if you would kindly lock away Mr. Pettigrew." Dumbledore whispered to McGonagall, who had run up to them, white as a sheet. Clearing his throat, he tapped it with his wand.

"I believe we have our victors! Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter of Hogwarts!" He called out as Harry's arm was raised, by Cedric, supporting it with his own. He smiled for a moment before the effects of fatigue kicked in and he too collapsed.

* * *

Harry woke in the hospital wing to find Cedric sitting next to him in a chair, staring at the large black dog by his side. The wing was devoid of any other visitors, and he could see Krum and Fleur lying in beds at opposite ends of the room.

"Thanks for telling me to leave even if you couldn't. I couldn't really think at the time. Dumbledore told me what happened. I would have died there." Cedric spoke quietly, his voice quavering.

"Don't mention it. Please." Harry replied, scratching the dog's ears. "You saw the man holding my leg right?" He continued on after Cedric nodded.

"Sirius Black is innocent. The crimes he was imprisoned for were committed by that man. Now then. I'd like you to meet my godfather." At this statement, the dog began to shift, and a moment later, standing in its place was a man of average height with pale skin, grey eyes and shaggy black hair.

"Sirius Black." He extended a hand, which Cedric proceeded to shake wearily.

"Nice to meet you sir." He greeted him uncertainly before turning to Harry and handing him a small sack full of Galleons. "The winnings, they're yours. You saved my hide thrice now. First the dragons, then in the maze, and then….. after the maze."

"Please don't." Harry replied, trying to hand it back to him, to his refusal.

"Harry I'm not taking them back." Cedric refused, folding his arms as Harry sighed. Suddenly, an idea popped into mind.

"You know the Weasely Twins right? The chaotic ones? Well they're going to start a joke shop if they can get the money, and I've seen a product they managed to make with what money they have. It's bloody brilliant. Ton Tongue toffee. Makes your tongue grow insanely large. They gave my muggle cousin a four foot long tongue after slipping him one when they came to get me this summer. How about we jointly invest in them?" Harry proposed, grinning at the ridiculous idea.

"You know. That doesn't sound too bad. We just have to track them down." Cedric started to smile as Sirius changed back into a dog and the doors opened. Dumbledore walked in, followed by Professor McGonagall.

"Good day. Harry I believe Mr. Diggory has the winnings which you can deliberate over. I would like to speak to you privately for a moment." He smiled as Cedric walked off and drew the curtain around them.

"I simply wish to say that I will get the Wizengamot to give your godfather a trial before they displace me, and then I believe you can leave your relatives behind and close that chapter of your life for good."

"Displace you sir? How can they do that?" Harry was still processing some of it.

"I will proclaim the rising which you saw, but Fudge will try and create doubt to avoid panic and cast me off the Wizengamot. Unfortunately, though I am politically well placed, I am not as well placed as I am magically. I will however do my best to arrange the trial before I am booted off the Wizengamot, which I assure you, will happen. Have a good summer my boy."

* * *

Harry jumped out of bed at the sound of a loud pounding sound on his bedroom door. He picked up his glasses and slipped them on, running to the door. Standing outside, extremely red in the face, was his uncle, a grotesque man who was half as wide as he was tall.

"BOY! I WILL NOT HAVE ANYMORE OF THESE RUDDY OWLS FLYING AROUND IN MY HOUSE!" Vernon Dursley shouted, swinging his right arm at the scrawny fifteen year old in front of him.

Harry ducked and slipped through the gap under the older man's arm, rushing down the stairs. If an owl was following the formality of going to the front of the house instead of the addressee, that meant it was either from Hogwarts, the ministry, or from an unknown sender of a house "Noble and Most Ancient". He nearly tripped over the last step and sprinted into the hallway where an owl with charcoal feathers sat on the coat rack, a letter in its beak and disdain in its eyes as it stared at the horse like face of his Aunt Petunia.

The woman in question was shrieking in fright as she tried to prod it with a broom, too far away to even bother the owl. Harry dove towards it, taking the letter in one hand and opening the door in the other, allowing it to fly away as he too sprinted off, afraid of his uncle's reaction. He ran all the way down Wisteria Drive until he reached a small park near Magnolia Crescent, leaving behind Privet Drive and all his problems. Finally breathing, he looked at the letter. It was sealed with black wax, stamped into a seal he didn't recognize. A family emblem with an intricate 'B' kept the letter shut, the words 'Toujours Purs' under it.

He sat down and looked across the street for a second, to see the bush where two years ago, he had unknowingly caught a glimpse of his godfather for the first time. An idea began forming in his head, about whom had sent the letter, and he sincerely hoped he was right as he tore the envelope open. He pulled out a letter written in black ink, his heart rate picking up as he recognized the untidy scrawl that was Sirius's handwriting. He tried to clear his head as he wondered why he hadn't received the usual note scrawled onto a scrap of parchment delivered by a random bird straight to his window. Deciding to focus on that later, he read the note.

' _How are you doing pup?_

 _I will be by in two weeks, at least two weeks since I wrote this letter, I imagine I'll have mailed it much later. The family owls had disappeared and it might take a while to call one. In any case, I should be by on the fifteenth of July around four in the afternoon before my trial at five. I'd like to take you with me so I can claim custody of you after I'm cleared._

 _Padfoot'_

Harry's heart leapt up to his throat and he jumped up. It was the fifteenth today. And judging by how long he had been awake, and where in the sky the sun was, it was nearly four. He didn't care about his uncle's reaction anymore, Sirius was coming! He sprinted back as fast as he could, to see the door ajar. He carefully stepped inside to see the a tall man with shaggy black hair, wearing a black suit, standing in front of his uncle, wand pointed at him.

"Where is Harry?" he asked, never once thinking to look behind him.

"Sirius!" Harry had barely uttered the name when his godfather whipped around and wrapped his arms around him after seeing him.

"Harry!" the fifteen year old returned his godfather's embrace, feeling happy for the first time since the end of June. Life with the Durselys was barely better than solitary confinement (not that he had ever experienced the latter). At least he had Hedwig with whom he could send letters to his friends.

"FREAKS! I WILL NOT HAVE MORE FREAKS IN MY H-!" Vernon found himself unable to speak as Sirius let go of Harry and spun around, firing off a silencing charm at Vernon, who was going pink in the face.

"What have you done to him!?" Petunia cried out, holding onto her husband for dear life.

"Silenced him. I'll lift it when I'm done talking." Sirius snapped, frowning. The twinkle returned to his steel grey eyes in a trice as he grinned, turning back to Harry, who was ecstatic.

"One Peter Pettigrew will be presented at my trial today to testify under Veritaserum. Hopefully this will convince the world that Voldemort is back. The Prophet's been slandering your name for two weeks now."

"That's brilliant!" Harry shouted, not caring who heard him.

"Once I'm cleared, I am legally entitled to demand custody of you. And I can't be denied it, since I am on your parents' wills, the first person who was to raise you should they have passed." Sirius's smile flickered at the last word but it remained steady after.

"You mean you're going to take the freak off our hands?" Dudley asked, speaking up and reminding Harry that his relatives were in the hall with them as well.

"Yes. And you lot had better pray I succeed, else I may just be forced to do what I was imprisoned for and lay down your lives before your maker, simply to free my godson."

Harry caught the twinkle in his godfather's eyes and relaxed as he realized it was an idle threat, smiling as his aunt's face became paler than a sheet of paper out of sheer terror.

"Harry, get your wand." Sirius frowned as Harry took off up the stairs, returning a moment later with his holly wand in his back pocket.

Sirius fired off a spell at Vernon before gripping Harry's shoulders, and without warning, they disappeared into thin air.

* * *

"Come along now. Into the phone booth over there." Sirius led him into a decrepit old phone booth once he had gotten his bearings, squeezing in side by side. Reaching out for the phone, he dialed a short number.

" _Welcome to the Ministry of Magic, please state your name and business with us today."_ A smooth feminine voice sounded from the speaker, making Harry try and step back instinctively.

"Sirius Black, reporting for trial by the Wizengamot, and Harry Potter, possible custody hearing." Sirius stated, waiting patiently as something inside the phone whirred in place and two badges fell out of the change slot. Picking them up, Harry was handed one with his name and the words 'possible custody hearing' on it. Laughing quietly, he pinned it to his shirt.

" _Visitors to the ministry, you are required to submit your wands for inspection at the far end of the atrium."_ The voice sounded again as the box seemed to sink into the ground.

When it finally stopped, Sirius opened the door and they walked into an absolutely massive hall with a dark wood floor that was polished until it shone and paneled walls lined with gilded fireplaces. He could see golden symbols shifting around the blue roof and at the end of the hall, behind a checking post, was a fountain bearing a statue of a wizard, a Witch, a house elf and a centaur.

He walked up to the checking post and handed over his wand once it was his turn, as he had seen so many others before him do while walking there before recollecting his wand and walking through. He felt Sirius's hand take a hold of him and guide him through the ministry and through the gated elevator down a few floors and finally into a massive room, where he took a place amongst the people standing by the door, maybe a dozen members of the public whom had come to observe the Wizengamot session.

Sitting on a raised dais, was a woman he didn't recognize, who was wearing a monocle, and the Minister for magic, Cornelius Fudge, each behind their own desk. The room was shape like an amphitheater, extended on a bit into a U shape from the open ends with the dais at the end. He caught the woman mid speech.

"Next item on the itinerary, trial of Sirius Orion Black at five pm. Is the defending party available to start trial early?" She called out, her voice booming across the room.

"Yes!" Sirius called out, stepping out of the crowd, Harry close behind him. "I'm here! And if proven innocent, I demand custody of my legal godson, Harry James Potter, as per the wills of James and Lily Potter."

"If proven innocent, in accordance to the wills of the late Potters, you shall be granted custody and guardianship of the last of the surviving line, which is Harry James Potter, Mr. Black." The woman replied, clearly in charge of the room. "Aurors, bring forward the accused for the crimes our defendant was charged with."

A tall, bald, dark skinned wizard in blue robes dragged a bound and squirming Wormtail forward and tossed him into a chair similar to the one Sirius had sat down in as chains snapped over each of them, restraining them.

"Auror Shacklebolt, if you would administer the flushing potions and the Veritaserum." The woman spoke out again, taking control of the room with one sentence as the dark skinned man, Shacklebolt, poured a potion handed to him by a colleague, down each of their throats, Sirius complying easily and Wormtail resisting. A minute later, pale orange vapors started to drift out of the latter's skin, some of which an auror guided into a vial and bottled away. Once again, Shacklebolt administered a potion to each of them, a clear liquid which seemed to be odorless. The woman waited a minute, until after checking their eyes individually, the auror gave him the thumbs up.

"Each of you please state your full name for the record." The woman ordered, her voice ringing across the hall once more.

"Sirius Orion Black, son of Orion Black, Lord of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black." Sirius stated blankly, leaving Wormtail to speak.

"Peter Cecil Pettigrew, son of Cecil Pettigrew." Wormtail shuddered as he forced the words out, visibly trying to resist.

"I would like an account from each of you of what went down on the night where a dozen muggles were killed using magic and Peter Pettigrew was assumed dead, and from you Mr. Black, events after that." The woman asked, staring at each of them.

"I would like to state a few things in reference to the following tale before I begin Madam Bones. To begin with, myself and Peter Pettigrew are both illegal Animagi. The third of our group, James Potter, made a point to register at his wife's insistence. I have prepared the money to pay the fine which I would have paid after registering, had I not been imprisoned. I myself, take the form of a grim, and Peter's form is a rat. The second article I wish to present is merely for ease of understanding. Originating in our group of friends is a nickname for Peter, Wormtail, which I will most likely refer to him as out of habit." Harry would have found it hard to not fall asleep to the dull monotonous speech, had it not been Sirius's fate being debated.

"Points noted by the senior scribe of the court?" Madam Bones asked, turning to a stand down by her side.

"Points recorded by Senior Scribe of notice, Percival Weasely." Harry's neck snapped to the right as he saw that it was indeed Ron's older brother sitting behind the stand by the side of the dais.

"Continue, Mr. Black." This time it was Fudge who spoke up

"When James and Lily Potter learnt of the target on their backs, they went into hiding under the Fidelius charm. I offered to be their secret keeper, but they decided against it under the pretense that no one would ever suspect that Wormtail of all people was the secret keeper for the Potters. As I understand, Wormtail was a death eater at the time, pledged to Lord Voldemort, to whom he gave the knowledge of where the Potters' residence was." Sirius was oblivious to how everyone in the room with the exception of Dumbledore flinched or reeled back at the use of the name.

"Upon learning that their lives had been ended prematurely, I chased down Wormtail, to an alley with around a dozen muggles in it. He called out lies about how I had betrayed James and Lily, and with his wand behind his back, cast a spell which blew up the street before I could react. As I managed to see before I slipped out of consciousness, he escaped by transforming into the rat he became as an Animagus. Further events after that day are as such. I spent my years in Azkaban, better off than most, considering Dementors can't affect animals to the extent which they can affect humans. I escaped after seeing Wormtail in a picture in a newspaper, and I made my way to Hogwarts, watching my godson's quidditch matches in the shadows and trying to find a way to get to Wormtail. In short, someone left the password on a piece of paper, and I managed to slip into the Gryffindor common room. I got ahold of the rat and dragged him back to the shrieking shack. As I understand, my godson and two other students including the assumed owner of the rat, were outside the entrance by the Whomping Willow, and the rat had at the time escaped from me. I brought them back inside along with Wormtail. Professor Remus Lupin arrived, and while explaining the tale to my godson. Due to some mishaps with a full moon and a registered Werewolf, Pettigrew escaped. Apparently this man was apprehended by Albus Dumbledore at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Today I am here to gain my freedom, and afterwards, custody of my godson." Sirius finished, leaving half the Wizengamot whispering quietly, and the other half silent.

"Mr. Pettigrew, I would request that you refrain from presenting an account until you answer the following question, is there anything false amongst what Sirius Orion Black has testified under the influence of Veritaserum." Madam Bones asked, glaring at him through her monocle.

Harry watched with satisfaction as the small pudgy man choked on the words before speaking.

"N-no." He uttered, wrinkling up his nose like a rat as the dais looked up and at the Wizengamot. It was surprisingly Cornelius Fudge who had the next word in.

"All those in favor of clearing Sirius Orion Black of all charges save for a calculated fine for his years as an unregistered Animagus?" he called out, raising his wand and tapping it against a gold spot on his desk.

Harry watched nervously as every member of the Wizengamot, after pondering over it, did the same, his heartbeat audible to him. He stared into Sirius's eyes from afar as Fudge stared at a piece of Parchment on his desk, watching carefully. Finally, he raised it and held it to the light.

"Sirius Orion Black is charged with a fine of six thousand Galleons for six years as an unregistered Animagus, the other twelve having been served in Azkaban and cleared of all other charges." Madam Bones picked up the paper that Fudge had passed her and slammed the gavel into her desk, turning back to him as he broke out into a grin.

"I understand you wish to claim guardianship of one Harry James Potter, your godson, is that correct?" Sirius only nodded in reply. "For the process to be done legally, the party in question, that is Harry James Potter, has to provide his consent."

"I'm here!" Harry called out, drawing Madam Bones' attention to him for the first time as he placed a hand on Sirius's shoulder, whom had been unbound, the chair slowly changing into something somewhat comfortable.

"Harry James Potter, last of the line of Potter, do you consent to your legal Godfather's guardianship and custody of you over….." she snapped her fingers and Percy drew his wand, summoning files to her, as well as a stack of paperwork. "Vernon and Petunia Dursley, muggles, the sister of your mother, and her spouse?" She stared at him.

"I consent." He spoke slowly and clearly, ecstatic. His days of living in hell were over!

"Please release Lord Black to fill out the paper work and provide him with a flushing potion. If there is nothing else you have to provide on one Peter Pettigrew, please follow an Auror to the correct department and file the paperwork presented to you by our scribe, as well as recollect your wand." Madam Bones declared as a stack of paper work levitated to them. Seeing as Sirius was drinking the flushing potion, Harry took in it his arms as the Sirius bowed low to the Wizengamot before staring at them and speaking loudly.

"I have one last thing to declare! Peter Pettigrew is a heartless, cowardly, pigheaded prat!" He shouted, sending Harry and half the courtroom into stifled laughter as they were lead out, Sirius bowing low repeatedly.

"Come on, let's fill out this ruddy paperwork and get your things from the Dursley's. We'll be staying where I grew up temporarily, until we can move to one of the unused Black estates. I hate that building with all my life. It's also where I've been staying for a while, sorting things out. Casting a few people out of the family of Black and bringing one or two back in." Harry was grinning like an idiot as he listened to Sirius. He was in heaven, he was sure of it. Heaven on earth. Magic suddenly seemed to want to repay him for fourteen years in hell.

* * *

With a loud crack, Harry materialized on his bed in the small room his relatives had grudgingly given to him before his first year, Sirius next to him.

"I'll help you pack. Let's get this stuff done with magic. It feels good to have my own wand back! I'm not tossing this one aside though, it'll be useful for you to actually practice what I teach you over the summer." Sirius frowned, focusing for a moment as he pointed his wand and Harry's things assembled, with the exemption of his clothes. "We may need to get you new clothes though."

"Wait what do you mean teach me?" Harry asked, still confused.

"I made a point of it to get reviews on you from Professor McGonagall, one of the two adults who believed me, and while I don't mind your grades, believe me for the most part mine were worse, your mother might have. I happen to have an Outstanding in Transfiguration in both NEWT and OWL levels, as did James. If I recall correctly, we managed to scrape Exceeds Expectations in Charms both times, and James managed to get an O in defense both times, though I was stuck with E's. But that doesn't mean I wasn't good at things. In any case, we were crud at anything else. If I ever find your mother's potions notes I'll give them to you. They'll be helpful from what I recall about her performances in class. In any case, I plan on taking you as far as possible in Transfiguration, and expanding your spell collection for offensive and defensive spells. I also plan on telling McGonagall to place you in a different class appropriately. You're a son of a Marauder, and the godson of another, both Animagi. I plan on helping make you one soon too. I think that should be enough?" He smiled as he stared at Harry, who was frozen in shock.

"That's brilliant Sirius!" Harry wanted to shout, but years of living in the house had made him wary of anything louder than a whisper.

"You'll enjoy the lessons pup, I can tell already!" Sirius frowned as a brown owl swooped in and out of the window, dropping a letter at his feet. Picking it up, he read it and his frown deepened for a moment before it left his face. "Let's tell the oaf you're leaving and get out. We have to go to Gringotts tomorrow. Apparently there were some parts of your parents' will that pertain to me and the goblins were unable to fulfill considering my imprisonment. Let's go. OI DURSLEY!" Sirius shouted the last part, walking out of the room.

Picking up his trunk and his Firebolt fearfully, Hedwig's cage hooked over his arm, Harry headed out to follow Sirius. He found him staring at his uncle, the fat man purple in the face, a vein popping in his head.

"He's mine now. You'll never see him again in your lives, I'll ensure that. I hope to never have to darken your doorstep again, nor hear your name in my life, and lastly, A THOUSAND CURSES FOR YOUR TREATMENT OF HARRY!" Sirius waved his hands like an idiot, scaring the life out of Dudley, who had come to watch, and took hold of Harry.

Once more Harry prepared himself for the unpleasant sensation that was Apparition and stood still. A second later, with only some minor discomfort, he was standing in front of a row of city houses, identical to each other, except number twelve. What was different about number twelve was that it was missing. Number eleven was followed by number thirteen.

"Here, the place is under the Fidelius charm." Sirius handed him a scrap of parchment with a single sentence written on it in the same writing that had been on the note he got with his father's invisibility cloak, Dumbledore's handwriting.

' _The order of the phoenix is located at number twelve Grimmauld Place, London.'_ It read. Harry looked up to see the two houses moving to make space in between, a bit larger than the plots either were built on, occupied by a dirty looking city house. Sirius walked up to the door and opened it quietly with a key, leading Harry inside to a quiet scene. A few adults, including Professor McGonagall, Bill and Arthur Weasely, the Auror from the courtroom: Shacklebolt, Remus Lupin and Professor Dumbledore were visible seated at the kitchen table through the door at the end of the hall.

Sirius held a finger up to his lips to indicate silence and crept along the corridor, past a portrait with curtains drawn over it, warning him silently to not trip over a troll leg coat rack. As quietly as he could, Harry followed him to the kitchen and shut the door behind him. Once the door was shut and they were inside, Bill spoke up.

"Thank god you didn't wake up the portrait of old Mrs. Black. Shrieking at us all the bloody time. We can't get it off the walls, no matter what we try!" Bill laughed weakly, gathering up the scrolls on the table and vanishing them with a flick of his wand.

"Good to make your acquaintance Harry. My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt, Senior Auror." Shacklebolt rose and shook his hand, sitting back down after meeting him.

"Harry my boy how are you?" Lupin stood up and greeted him, hugging him quickly. Most others in the room simply nodded.

"I'm fine thanks." Harry replied, a bit confused as to what was going on.

"This, Harry, is the order of the phoenix, or rather the headquarters. The order itself is a covert organization formed during the last wizarding war to fight Voldemort and his followers. The remainder of the order, a good many people compared to this meager gathering, isn't here tonight, considering there wasn't a meeting called. Sirius has been so kind as to let us use this house, since he intends to move out with you in any case, tomorrow. I will however refuse to induct you into the order before you ask, since you are underage." Dumbledore explained a twinkle in his eyes as he smiled. "I believe the first room on the left on the second floor is unoccupied if you would like to bed down for the night."

Nodding numbly, Harry made his way up there and set his things down, contemplating what was going on. He climbed the narrow staircase, trunk, broom and Hedwig's cage in hand, going into the room Dumbledore had mentioned. It was furnished simply with a bed which wasn't uncomfortable, a chair and a desk, and one chair in a corner. Two candle holders were in place, one on the wall with the door, one by the window which was facing out onto the street. He set his things down and pulled a few things out of the trunk before he went back downstairs, greeted by the smell of roast beef wafting down the corridor.

Hungry for a proper meal, he followed the scent to the kitchen where Sirius was passing around sides of roast beef and bowls of soup to those who were still around the table. Arthur, Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall had left, and a newcomer had joined the table, one of the Aurors from the Wizengamot session, a girl with short pink hair, violet eyes and a rosy, heart shaped face.

"Wotcher. The name's Tonks. I'm Sirius's niece." She greeted him enthusiastically sticking out a hand in greeting, which Harry shook before sitting down and taking a plate from Sirius. Immediately he began digging in, devouring his first helping faster than anyone at the table.

"Glad you liked it." Tonks winked at him cheerfully, laughing from across the table.

"Nymphadora, or rather Tonks as she likes to be called, is the daughter of my favorite cousin, Andromeda. She was cast out of the family for marrying a muggleborn, but then even I was cast out of the family, simply for not being the ideal son. I plan on casting out more than a few darker people and bringing Andromeda and her immediate family as soon as I can." Sirius explained, handing Harry another helping. "Maybe I should have thrown a thousand actual curses at the blubbering oaf instead of waving my arms around like an idiot to scare him. They've been effectively starving you for fourteen years, and that's fourteen years too many."

"Maybe, but then I'm fairly sure your trial wouldn't have gone in your favor." Remus interjected, wiping his mouth with a napkin and standing up. "I hope you don't mind if I retire for the night."

"That being said Harry, it's nearly eight now, we should bed down at some point. I don't want to spend a minute longer living in this house than I have to. Besides, we have to go to Gringotts as well. Go upstairs. I'll wake you around eight tomorrow." Sirius took the empty dishes to the sink before pointing his wand at them and setting them about cleaning themselves before heading up after Harry to go to bed.

Harry made his way to his room and lay down as reality finished sinking in. He was living with Sirius. Sirius was free. He never had to see the Dursleys again, at least of his own volition. Happy thoughts coursed through his head as he lay down, drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Harry woke up to Sirius shaking him to rouse him from his slumber.

"Wake up pup. We need to get a start on the day. First a few sets of robes, one of which you can wear to Gringotts, then, well, Gringotts, and then we move. We can acquire muggle clothing, which truth be told I find far more comfortable, later." Sirius suggested, leaving him to get ready for the day.

Around half an hour later, Harry once again found himself waiting with Sirius's hand on his shoulder. A second later, he was standing on a large stone pedestal, about ten feet across, outside of the exit to the leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley. He walked down to Madam Malkin's with Sirius and picked up two robes, Sirius leaving two more on custom order with Malkin herself. After changing into the robes and stowing away the old, baggy jeans and sweatshirt he had been wearing so he could use them while shopping for new clothes, he followed Sirius down to Gringotts and down to the head teller at the end of the hall, which Harry looked around once.

The floor was white marble, polished till it reflected his face clearly, with streaks of silver in it which had been scrubbed until they were sparkling in the light from the skylight being filtered through the crystal chandelier.

"Lord Black to meet with Lord and Director Ragnok in regards to a missive about items pertaining to himself in a will." Sirius said to the teller, presenting his wand for identity confirmation as the goblin at the desk raised an eyebrow, checking the wand. He was shorter than the other goblins Harry saw in the bank, and he was clearly old. The tufts of hair around the sides of his head were grey and he was wearing gold rimmed glasses over his wrinkled face.

"Ah, Lord Black. Follow me." He stepped down, leading them to a room off down a corridor opposite the door to the vaults. He snapped his fingers as he approached a room which had a handleless door and the door opened, letting them in.

Once again he snapped his fingers, and the door reappeared, but with a handle on the inside. There was a desk in front of rows upon rows of ledgers, with two chairs in front of it and one behind it. Lying on it was a single piece of paper, written in what Harry thought for a second was his own handwriting, before realizing it must have been his father's. A warm feeling started to spread in his chest, something that he had felt every time he found something he had in common with his father apparently, or was just like his father at.

"Sit down please. The late James Potter's functioning will for his spouse as well is on the table here. You see, to get straight to the point, I am going to quote Mister Potter." The goblin, clearly Ragnok, cleared his throat and began.

"The advent of the following term was Lily's for only she could have come up with a solution so brilliant for Sirius and so good for our only child. As the head of the house of Potter, I declare that should we be laid dead before Sirius Orion Black, if he is Lord of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black at the time, the house of Potter should be folded into the house of Black, and my son given to him to raise, who we believe will raise him the way we never could should this will have to be acted upon. Else, to Sirius Orion Black I would give guardianship and custody of my son. My dearest son, should you read this, we wish to let you know that you meant more than the world to us. Should someone have offered to give me my own planet to abandon you, I would have without though run him through with a blunt and splintered broom."

"Even from the grave he's helping me." Sirius laughed as Harry looked at him quizzically. "I assume you don't understand what any of this means."

"Folding a family means losing the name of one of the families involved, generally the one being folded. It seems however that Lily found a way for me to stick one to my family. As my godson you would have lived with me under the banner of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. What I can do with this is instead of removing your family from history, I can wipe mine save for Andromeda. And I very much intend to do so. To put it simply, you will still be living as Harry Potter of the House of Potter, which you will be expected to revive by the means of an heir once married, under the banner of House Black, but under the banner of a new house of Black, still Noble and Most Ancient, but the only people in its history will be myself and anyone I choose to bring with me." Sirius was roaring with laughter, and soon Harry joined him, seeing the appeal in dealing a blow to relatives he detested. All the while, Ragnok was watching silently.

"As such Mr. Black, Mr. Potter's key for his trust vault, and for his family vault are yours for now, as his legal guardian and godfather." Ragnok snapped his fingers and two keys appeared in Sirius's hand.

"I accept. In the folding process of House Potter into The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, I wish to wipe from history the past members of House Black, except myself, and to bring with me three members cast out of the house, Andromeda, Ted and Nymphadora Tonks. I seal this as Lord Black." Sirius was solemn once more as the new family tree he was making appeared on a blank piece of parchment Ragnok placed on the desk. "And as I fold the in the process of being folded into the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, I take the crest as that of the house of Potter."

Harry watched in fascination as Sirius stamped the black wax at the bottom of the page with a signet ring which formed a seal with a species of dragon he'd never seen before and a sword and a bow crossed behind it.

"What's with the dragon?" he blurted out, turning to Sirius.

"The House of Potter often kept domesticated dragons, only one at a time though. I recall Lily had domesticated one before she released it to live in the wild amidst the war, a young Antarctic Diorbis." Sirius explained, standing up and leaving with him, after nodding to the goblin, making a copy of the tree and taking it with him.

"Now to what we can finally call home." Sirius cheerfully took his shoulder once they were out and with another crack they disappeared. When they arrived, Harry found himself in an absolutely massive cul-de-sac with manor houses on each side. By far the biggest was the one he was being led to by Sirius though. He walked to the gates which opened at his touch, swinging shut behind him. The drive was segmented by stout spruce arches with lights fitted in them and hedges between them, all the way down to the door, with one gap in the middle hedges letting into the gardens. Through the arches he saw acres of well kempt lawns with flower beds and benches, and a fountain near the drive on either side, leading around the house to woods he could see at the far back. Down at the end of the drive stood the manor Sirius had had built, a massive building with an enchanted wooden exterior, impervious to the weather.

The building itself was four stories tall, with a roof slanting down towards him from the center, and away from him, with a small rise straight above where the door was, where it angled and slanted down to his sides. He walked into a well-lit hall behind Sirius, with a marble floor streaked with gold and silver, with the entrances to the dining room on the left and what he saw was a drawing room on the right open. He walked to the lounge, comfortably decorated with couches, coffee tables, and a TV of all things. That was when he noticed. All the lights were electric. He followed Sirius into the library which he saw took up a good bit of the right side of the house, at the very end, with three sets of couches grouped around tables opposite the wide lanes between bookshelves spanning three floors, perpendicular to a massive stained glass window which followed the bookshelves all the way up to the roof. Over the seating area was a balcony, and on top of that another, and another, one for each floor barring the top one, with access to the ladders on the bookshelves.

Jumping with joy, Harry followed Sirius through the rest of the house, past three guest bedrooms on the second floor along with a small sitting area, and the third floor with its lounge, two guest bedrooms and a kitchenette, and up to the fourth floor where Sirius said there rooms were. The fourth floor itself was mainly two bedrooms, that of Sirius and his own. He found his trunk and broom already in the room along with Hedwig, who had found a roost made for her, which would take a while to outfit to exactly his likings. As Sirius had said, it was up to him how to furnish it. Finally he walked out to the verandah at the back, roofed by a terrace for each floor, which opened directly onto a small lake surrounded by forest.

"We're going to have a lot of fun here kid. It's going to be nice." Sirius grinned as he sat down in a chair on the verandah which Harry noted was literally on the lake. The edge of the house was the edge of the land. "Lake's ours too, and a good bit of the forest."

"Wow." Was all Harry could manage as he sank into a wicker chair next to his godfather and stared across the lake. That was until he noticed an incoming shape in the sky. He stood up, Sirius following suit as a dragon dove clean into the lake, emerging a few moments later and trailing around to the garden, where it was followed by Sirius and Harry.

Sitting in the garden was a fifteen foot long dragon, tail included, which sat down on the grass, watching them. Its wings weren't as thin as the ones he had seen on dragons in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but they were as smooth. Its front claws were part of its wings, making them limb like appendages. Its scales were a shimmering silvery blue, and its irises ice blue. Its scales were tiny, barely discernable, and in some places, there were none. Its snout was shaped aerodynamically, unlike many dragons he had seen, and its tail was long and winding, and ended in a fin. Most surprising of all, Harry saw a band around one of its arms bearing the very seal Sirius had stamped the paper with in bold silver and white. It opened its maw and turned to the ground, releasing a thin, focused beam of ice onto the ground and forming letters, which Harry quickly started to trace in the dirt in front of him so that they would readable when the ice melted.

A few minutes later, he was standing next to Sirius, reading the message he had scrawled into the ground.

' _Orion. Master James- Mistres Lily. Friends.'_ Harry read out loud as it slowly fell into place. This was the dragon Sirius had mentioned that his mother domesticated. He was about to go and try and pet it as it lay down and he felt a foreign presence in his mind, portraying feelings of happiness and joy, and a few memories of sadness and years alone.

Harry stood still in shock. Sitting in front of him was a creature that had been raised for a while by his parents, which could somehow communicate with him telepathically.

"Orion. Lily had a sense of humor." Sirius finally unfroze. "Antarctic Diorbi, the plural, are dragons that live in extremely cold, frozen conditions, or in the sea. They can survive very easily in England, they just choose to live on mountains in the wild. Last I recall there were barely any in the world. Oh and they sort of breath ice instead of fire. Part of the whole Antarctic thing. For a while the magical creatures committee was against calling it a draconic creature." Sirius reached out and tried to pet it, to be licked by Orion's tongue, before he and Sirius were wrapped into a winged group hug.

"I said it would be fun, and I can tell it will be. But for now, we should probably get you decked out." Sirius laughed as Orion released them, Harry petting his head.

"Sure."

* * *

August twentieth, a bit more than a month later…

Harry opened the door of Quality Quidditch and stepped inside, seeing a familiar curtain of brown hair, albeit one that was normally tied in a ponytail.

"Hi Katie!" he greeted her, causing her to spin around from her place examining a Cleansweep.

"Harry! Hi!" she hugged him in return, startling him slightly. Katie Bell was one of the members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team as it had been when he first joined, a chaser, and a good one at that. Her brown hair was a bit beyond shoulder length, and fell in a wave over behind her, some of it over her right shoulder, in a way Harry had never seen before. Her face was pale and pretty, and her brown eyes had a sparkling quality which captivated Harry for a moment. He registered quickly that though they had both undoutedbly grown over the summer, he was finally as tall as her, and now there was at least one person one the quidditch team who wasn't taller than he was.

"I like what you've done with your hair. Looking for a new broom?" Harry asked, smiling.

"Thank you very much. And yes I am. My old one broke recently, and I need a new one for Quidditch this year. I'm thinking of getting the new Cleansweep. It's at a decent price." She smiled back, turning to examine the broom as the owner of the store tapped Harry on the shoulder and stooped low for a second, greeting him warmly.

"Good day Master Potter. Looking for a new broom? You could get anything in this shop gratis. After all, it was your generous investment which allowed us to expand our business so much back in the seventies!" He smiled warmly, as Harry reeled in shock, not knowing what to say as Katie turned to join him.

"Not today thanks. Might I ask how much we invested?" Harry asked quizzically, deciding to find out as much as he could.

"As the heir of the Black family as well as the last of the Potter Family," Harry sighed, hating how much made its way into the papers, "Of the investment and discount shares we sold, as a total you have a ninety one percent share in the shop."

"Thank you Mr. Carlisle." Harry nodded and walked out of the shop with Katie, who seemed to be done examining the brooms. "You want to get some ice cream Katie?"

"Why not." She replied, smiling as she followed him to Florean Fortescue's parlor, where a minute later they were sitting in a small booth, enjoying freshly made ice cream.

"So how are your holidays going?" She asked, taking a bite out of her cone.

"Really well. My godfather was proven innocent, and I got to leave my demented muggle relatives and live with him. He's been pushing me ahead in Transfiguration so I match my father. Simply put, it's been great. How about you?" he replied, staring intently into her eyes. Unlike what many people thought, he wasn't oblivious to the other gender, and hadn't failed to notice that his team mate was attractive in his book, making him slightly nervous. After all, he was a fifteen year old.

"It was fine up until now. My mom had to leave on business for a week, and Angelina and Alicia are away, and Leanne's in Greece mourning a relative, so I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron for a week. Worst part is she can't put her work off a day with how urgent it is and she's going to miss my sixteenth birthday tomorrow." Katie sighed leaning back in the chair.

"That must suck. Come on, let's go roam around, I actually need to find my Godfather." Harry suggested to a nod, leading Katie out to the main room, where Sirius happened to be looking for him. "Sirius!" He flagged him down, leading Katie across the room.

"There you are. Might I ask who this charming young lady is?" Sirius asked, smiling devilishly as he greeted them.

"This is Katie Bell, a friend of mine. We play on the Gryffindor Quidditch team together. She's probably the best chaser in the school." Harry failed to notice the small blush at the last remark as he introduced her. Sirius smiled as he turned to her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ms. Bell. I hope I'm not being intrusive, but seeing as you're not carrying anything, I have to ask are you staying in the leaky Cauldron for a while?" Sirius smiled once more, sitting down at an empty table with them.

"I do happen to be staying there Mr. Black. My mother's away for work for a while, so I'm here for a week at least." She replied, forming a nice opinion of the man who was Harry's godfather, the man who had managed to escape Azkaban.

"Then I hope you'd do us the pleasure of staying with us rather than here. The house is more than a bit empty, and any friend of Harry's is welcome in our house." Sirius smiled devilishly once more.

"I would love to." She replied simply, standing up. "When will you be leaving the alley?"

"As soon as you can collect your belongings. Unless you have something else you need Harry?" Sirius turned to him, struggling to stop himself from grinning like an idiot like he normally did most of the time.

"Actually, I just need to get a jar of polish for my broom. I sort of forgot to get that when I ran into you Katie. I'll meet you at the Apparition point." He lied through his teeth and nodded at them each once, running off as they separated outside the parlor. He would buy a jar of polish, he could always use that, but he had an idea that he wanted to carry out. It wouldn't hurt anyone after all.

He ran into Quality Quidditch panting heavily, having run from one end of the alley to the other, going straight to the shopkeeper from earlier.

"Excuse me Mr. Carlisle. You said I could have anything in the store gratis right?" he asked, to an earnest nod from the man.

"Well can you gift wrap a Firebolt and deliver it to this address?" He scrawled out the street address of the manor on a piece of parchment Carlisle gave to him and handed it back. "I need it tomorrow. It's a gift for someone." He explained, picking up a jar of broom polish, reading the price and handing the amount to Carlisle before leaving after being assured it would arrive early the next morning.

He reached the apparition point before the others, and soon, they were home. Sirius took them directly to the front door, where Orion woke up upon their arrival, staring at them intently.

"Orion, Katie's a friend." Harry said as he felt a pulse of recognition from the dragon. "Katie, this is Orion. The family dragon."

"Hi." Katie squealed, still slightly terrified, at least until Orion wrapped his wings around them and pulled them into an embrace against his cold radiating body.

"We should probably get inside now and put Katie's stuff away before much else. I'll come back out and visit you by the lake later." Harry said to the dragon, his voice slightly muffled to Katie's ears.

A low rumbling noise seemed to come from Orion's chest as he released the two of them to go inside and shifted over to the grounds, where with one mighty flap of his wings, and a push of his hind legs, he lifted off into the air, soaring around the house before returning to the depths of the lake. Harry, prayed silently that Katie wasn't scarred by the sudden meeting with Hedwig's surprising best friend, opened the main doors, which Sirius had let swing shut after Orion wrapped his wings around the two teenagers, pressing them together.

"Why don't I show you to your room and then around the manor?" Harry suggested, taking her trunk from her and walking ahead as she followed silently. He led her up to one of the more comfortable guest rooms, one of the two on the third floor and set her trunk down in it. When he turned around, she was standing in the lounge on the third floor once more, looking around the building.

"Come on. You'll love this place." Harry grinned, taking a hold of her hand and leading her to the balcony overlooking the library, eliciting a small blush from her. When he opened the door to the library balcony and stepped aside, her jaw fell open as she stared at the towering bookshelves, going all the way up to the roof of the third floor, and the massive stained glass window behind it in varying shades of red, orange, yellow and gold.

"Sirius shifted every book we found in my family vaults, his and his old house into this room. The rest of the house should be fairly quick to cover, then we can go roam about the grounds and the lake." He led her out once more, showing her the remainder of the house and taking her out to the sprawling gardens, where they spent the better part of two hours meandering about aimlessly before he took her back to the house through a side door and to the terrace overlooking the lake, with its little gate in the railing for diving off and into the water.

"Thanks for having me. I'm going to say there won't be a boring day in this place, especially once I buy a broom for my birthday!" Katie laughed, finally getting her bearings. Most of the tour she had been silent or speaking blankly, still absorbing her surroundings.

"Just a warning if you do dive in the lake. It's not occupied the same way the lake at Hogwarts is, but Orion's den is at the bottom. He doesn't mind people going in, if you could get that far for one." Harry's smile flickered as he recalled the second task from the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

"You're so lucky! Living in a place like this!" She replied, looking around the edge of the verandah to the grounds once more.

"I guess fate has a funny way of making up for things." Harry shrugged, sitting back on a Wicker couch.

"What do you mean by that?" Harry had piqued Katie's curiosity, and she had whipped around faster than the golden snitch.

"Fourteen years of my life, right up until Sirius was declared a free man, at least away from Hogwarts, were hell." Harry's sunny expression faltered as he stared across the lake, Katie sitting down next to him and inching closer slowly.

Trying to read his face, she realized he wouldn't open up about what he meant very easily, which made what he was clamming up about all the more interesting to know. Harry sat there in silence, watching until the sun had nearly set over the horizon, before standing up.

"Let's go inside, dinner should be about ready." He spoke abruptly the shine back in his previously glassy eyes.

Dinner was a quiet affair, each person tired for their own activities of the day, all three of them retiring one by one, starting with Katie, at around eight in the evening. Harry woke early the next morning to a loud rapping sound on the largest of the openable windows in the room. Sirius had thought through it before not making the stained glass window overlooking the grounds un-openable. He picked up his glasses and slid them on, checking the time quickly to see it was six before opening the window. Possibly the largest owl he had seen to date, a brown one twice the size of the ones he had seen, flew into the room, carrying a large, rectangular package, far larger than it was wide or thick, and set it down on the bed before fluttering out once more. For safety reasons, Harry picked up the spare wand he had been given by Sirius, one without the trace, and unwound the wrapping paper without tearing it to check.

Indeed, resting on a bed of paper cushioning was a brand new Firebolt, polished till it shone, each twig individually clipped to length. He cast one more spell to make sure it wasn't a dud or something that had been disguised, simply out of Paranoia from what had happened with the cup, confirming that it was indeed a fully functioning Firebolt. He let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding as he re-wrapped it with the wand and walked over to his desk, thinking long and hard before he scrawled out a note and signed it, attaching it to the Firebolt. He crept out of his room, placing it by a stack of nine presents outside her door. Grinning like an idiot, he crept back up to his room and lay down in his bed, drifting off to sleep soon. Good friends were hard to come by, and he hadn't even had a single letter from Ron or Hermione since school let out, not even on his birthday. He had on the other hand, received the occasional letter from Katie, one or two from the Twins, and even one from Wood, who had spent half the parchment urging him to crush Slytherin in the first match of the year in his stead, and to help the captain, whosoever it may be, pick the Keeper who fit in best with the team. Where had his friends been all summer that they couldn't write to him. And here was Katie, being as friendly as she had always been, even more so this year. She had been one of three people whom had believed him when he had said he didn't put his name in the Goblet. Heck, she had even sent him a present for his birthday, a box of chocolate and a sweater she wrote that she had knitted herself, which Harry wouldn't have noticed had he not been told, which had recently become his favorite sweater to wear in the sometimes drafty house.

When he rose again, it was eight, and this time he made his way down to the kitchenette, fixing himself a few sausages and an egg for breakfast, eating in the lounge. About half an hour later, when he was reading a copy of the daily prophet, continuing to ridicule himself and the recently removed Chief Warlock, Albus Dumbledore, did Katie emerge from her room. She squealed in delight like a five year old when she saw the stack of presents at her door. The aforementioned noise drew Sirius out from the third floor balcony, holding a small book bound in leather.

"Happy birthday Katie!" Harry stood up, hugging her once and sitting back down as she examined the pile, pushing it to the side of the couch to open them, not having noticed the largest of them.

"Happy birthday Ms. Bell." Sirius nodded in her direction, having figured out what the noise was, and returned to the balcony in the library.

Harry looked down at the red and gold stripes of the well fitted sweater, tossing aside the prophet and watching Katie. She opened presents, telling him who sent what as she put the cards aside. Some books, chocolates and a jacket from Alicia and Angelina separately, a bright orange and purple box from the twins, with the words 'product guide inside, still in testing stage, please read thoroughly before using' printed on it, which she opened to reveal a catalogue and a box of Fred and George's latest creations. She had a compass for her broom from Oliver, which caused her to wince as she undoubtedly recalled how her broom broke, a sweater and a few other things from her mother, including a pretty ruby and gold necklace from her mother which she asked him to slip around her neck as she held her hair up, a book from a relative, and a desk set from Sirius amongst other things. Then she noticed the largest package, left untouched amongst the wrapping paper.

Reaching for it gingerly she untied the bow and pulled the wrapping open, revealing the Firebolt. Her eyes widened and her hands rose to cover her open mouth as she found herself unable to move, staring at the present in front of her. Picking up the card after a minute, she read it. Her eyes were threatening to bulge out of their sockets as she turned to Harry.

"Harry! HOW? WHAT? WHY? THIS COSTS TEN THOUSAND GALLEONS!" She choked on the words, half shouting half shrieking, still in shock.

"Turns out that the house of Black owns all but a few of the shares of Quality Quidditch. I can get anything in the store, gratis, as per how much I own, once a year without even putting a scratch on the company's finances." He blushed as she attacked him, squeezing him so hard he felt every rib in his chest would be crushed.

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH!" She spoke happily. One thing was certain, a friend who had never abandoned him so far, was possibly about to become his new best friend.

"Race you around the lake?" He grinned devilishly, cocking his head.

"You're on!"

…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **A/N: Glad you guys took the follow/favorite thing to heart, as well as a special thanks to the people who reviewed (replies below). Thank you all so much for reading this! The numbers on this story, compared to the others I've written, are insane, for me at least. I hope that people continue to read this story, and that you all continue to read, follow/favorite and review if you deem it worthy. Side note, if a chapter is centric around a certain event or chain of events, I may give it a related title. When it isn't, like the first chapter, I won't. Side note regarding review replies before I reply: reviews are taking a long time to show up for me, both on the app and on the website, and there is one review that I didn't get email notification for, but whatever. If your review hasn't been replied to, presume that I can't see it yet, and rest assured, I'll reply whenever I see it.**

 **KennyHP: Thank you, especially since it's, as you said, my first non Pokemon story (I'll admit freely, I'm a bit of a poke-nerd. [UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE CENTURY]).**

 **TimothyB: I'm glad you like this story, and the way it's laying itself out, and honestly, I'm really looking forward to writing this! Thanks for the review, every single one can change the course of a day!**

 **Havok416: I value opinions like that, and I hold nothing against anyone whose opinions differ, and I do intend to keep at this, because I find that even in the first chapter, where I'm simply starting it off, I really enjoy writing this! I hope I got this update out soon enough for all my readers, and lastly, thanks!**

 **ObsessedWithHPFanFic: Thanks, and I'm glad you liked the things I had happen, even if I didn't describe some of them, over the summer.**

* * *

Harry stroked Hedwig's feathers a few times as Sirius caught up to him, then together, godfather and godson sprinted at the barrier to platform nine and three quarters, passing through without a hitch and emerging onto the platform where the scarlet steam engine known as the Hogwarts Express was ready to embark in half an hour, hundreds of students milling about the platform. Goodbyes were said to relatives and greetings given to friends who had been separated by the summer months.

Harry looked around and caught a glimpse of five redheads standing in a group around four carts, three brooms and two owls. Harry felt uneasy, sure that if they caught sight of him they would approach him, and whilst he was friends with the twins, he wasn't so sure about Ron. He knew that Ron's owl would have been able to find him wherever he was, given he wasn't in a house under the Fidelius charm, so the lack of correspondence had him rethinking whether Ron was really a good friend. His unease only grew when he saw Hermione go up to them and join them. Then he made his decision. If they came to him and tried to make up for it, he was open to reconciliation. He on the other hand would not be the one to approach them, after all, for weeks on end, Hedwig had brought his letters back, unsent.

Fortunately for him, he was pulled out his unease by Katie, who walked up to him and hugged him, squeezing him tightly and smiling. Her mother had returned two days before, and she had gone back home to get things she needed for school which she had forgotten. Standing behind her was a woman who looked like her, except shorter, with a different, slightly arched nose, and with black eyes instead of the warm hazel that Katie's were.

"Hi Harry!" She followed his uneasy glance over her shoulder to the Weasleys and Hermione, recalling what he had said about his friends. "Why don't you come sit with Angelina Alicia and me? Fred and George might come sit with us, but that's about it."

"Sure. See you then." He smiled as Sirius tapped his shoulder. Katie's mother gave him a warm smile and a nod as she walked away with her daughter.

"Harry, I have something that belonged to James that he gave me before they went into hiding. I found it again after digging all summer." Sirius spoke quietly as he pressed an oval mirror a bit larger than his hand into his hands, concealing it with his own. "This is part of a pair. They're communication devices. I heard the ministry would be appointing the new defense against the dark arts teacher, and I felt that despite my proven innocence, we would need an entirely safe method of communication. Say my name, by which I mean my Marauder name. The password, is Marauder Capitalis." Sirius leaned in and whispered the last part even lower than he had been speaking, covering Harry as he slipped the mirror into a small pouch in his pocket enchanted to expand to accommodate anything inside it, namely his wand, the invisibility cloak, the map, and now the mirror.

"Thanks. Goodbye." Harry embraced him once, before nodding at him and walking off with Hedwig, his trunk and his broom and going to the train, where Katie was waiting for him in the corridor.

Gesturing for him to follow, she led him down to the end of the train, the part where generally only sixth and seventh years sat. He had never seen it before, owing to the fact that the eldest students usually took it for themselves, and soon he saw why. The compartments were slightly larger, and the seats more comfortable inside, able to hold eight people, and the woman with the cart was sitting at the end, meaning they could get anything at any time. She ducked into a compartment, hoisting his broom up next to hers as he put his trunk up alongside Hedwig's cage.

"Hi Harry." The other two chasers of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Angelina and Alicia, two dark skinned seventh years, were sitting across from where he sat against the wall with the door, next to Katie. "How was your summer?"

"It was great Angelina. Better than I could have ever hoped for." He replied, leaning back. "How was yours?"

"It was nice. What do you mean, better than you could ever have hoped for?" she replied, staring at him intently.

"I got to leave the muggles I've lived with for fourteen years and move in with my godfather. Best day of my life, even better than the day I learned I was a wizard." Harry grinned as the compartment door opened once more and in ducked Fred and George Weasely, grinning like the idiots they were to the school. Harry suspected that while they had done horribly in their owls, secretly, they actually knew it all. How else would they make their products?

"Hey! Look, its ickle Harry!" Fred began, plopping down next to Katie.

"I guess we shouldn't call you ickle anymore." George picked up, sitting down to Angelina and getting a peck on the cheek as they drifted off into their twin speak.

"After all, you gave us the investment,"

"Or half the investment,"  
"Still a good chunk of money nevertheless,"  
"That allowed us to develop our products,"

"And move along with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!" They spoke the last sentence together, breaking out into laughter as Alicia clutched her head, feigning a headache from the twin speak.

"Good, now that you're all here anyway, I thought I'd tell the remainder of you, I'm the captain for this year, and after a year's gap, we're still the defending champions. I won't drone on as long as Wood, but I swear I'll drill you just as hard!" Angelina announced, to groans from everyone in the cabin.

"Secondly, and far more importantly. We need a keeper. There are some prospects in the house for it, Cormac McLaggen, Judy Stone, and a few others. Problem is that we need someone who fits in with the team and isn't full of themselves like McLaggen is. Personally I'm thinking of getting someone to hex him before tryouts so he doesn't make the team. I guarantee he would spend practice yelling at us about how to play our positions." Alicia grimaced, as though she had swallowed a slug.

"McLaggen's a pompous prick," George seemed serious.

"With an ego that barely fits in the great hall," Fred went on.

"Merlin knows it may have grown over the summer," George picked up, holding a hand to his forehead as though he was about to faint.

"Honestly, how does he get that giant head of his through the doors of the castle let alone through the train!?" Fred finished, raising his arms in shock.

"Regardless, unless he seems to have mellowed, Fred, George, find a way to get him out of tryouts. I don't care what you do if you have to, apart from seriously harming him. Use something you cooked up over the summer maybe. Stone can match him, and she's not busy carrying an ego around so she can actually practice." Angelina sighed, leaning back in her place.

"So Harry, seen Cedric over the summer? We've been in correspondence with our other benefactor, but while he's interested in how we use the money, he seems to be very busy." The twins chorused in unison, leaning over their seats towards him.

"Yeah he is." Harry thought back to the night Sirius had had Amos and Cedric Diggory over for dinner. "He's working on his Charms mastery and doing an internship at Nimbus, and they've agreed to hire him when he's done."

"That's a good position he's managed to land." Alicia spoke up, not questioning why they were discussing a former Hufflepuff. "Oh yeah, did you guys here, the sorting hat blew up in Dumbledore's office! They had to enchant a new one!"

"Really!? How did that happen?" Harry turned to face her, greatly surprised.

"Apparently the magic got unstable and it resulted in an explosion that singed the books behind it, not quite doing much damage to the office itself though." Angelina explained, leaning back in her chair.

"Wasn't our doing!" Fred raised a hand to the sky, palm forward, with a look of shock.

"Speaking of houses and the sorting hat, I don't suppose any of you know who the fifth year prefects for Gryffindor are?" Harry asked shifting his legs to a more comfortable position.

"Ah that reminds me! I don't know if you guys, Fred, George, Harry, heard, but all the sixth year prefects have been stripped of their positions for reasons untold. The only thing about that in the letter this year was that we did nothing to deserve it, but it was a necessity, and the heads of house will be required to appoint the prefects again, their choice, someone who was one before or not, within the first week. I heard the fifth year prefects weren't appointed for the same untold reasons! Only the seventh year prefects were exempted from this, though the head boy and girl will be appointed at the feast." Katie rambled on, widening the eyes of Angelina, Alicia and the twins.

"Maybe mum's dreams will come true and every one of us will become a prefect." George joked, punching his brother in the shoulder lightly.

"There's only going to be one head boy, you realize." Alicia went along with it, everyone in the cabin knowing full well that neither of the redheads in their compartment could ever be considered responsible.

"Well you see my dear," Fred pushed off,

"We're a pair,"

"Both or none,"

"Whether they like it or not,"  
"And we'll plead feeling incomplete,"

"Without our other half,"

"Not to mention we could observe,"

"More of the castle at once,"  
"Along with other numerous benefits,"  
"Of having two head boys,"

"And if that doesn't work,"  
"We'll find a way to get the head girl sacked,"  
"For something only a female could do,"  
"And plead a case to have to head boys instead of girls,"

"Unless it's Angelina of course." George finished, getting a smile and an affectionate kiss on the cheek from Angelina, which along with the other ones, and how their hands were intertwined, led Harry to the conclusion that they were dating.

"Good luck with that guys." Harry sighed, running one hand halfway through the crow's nest that was his hair and leaving it there. He closed his eyes and looked out the window, watching the British countryside fly by as the train made its way across the United Kingdom to the far north near Scotland, where there was enough space for it to exist with all the empty land around it as it was.

He nearly jumped as he was pulled out of the haze he had drifted into when he felt Katie lean against him, stretching out on the seat a bit.

"I don't know about you guys but I'm going to bed down for a while." She declared, turning to Harry, who was still staring at her. "What? You're comfortable." With that frank statement, she closed her eyes and attempted to rest, resulting in Harry copying her and trying to get some sleep, knowing it would be a long train ride.

* * *

Later that evening…

Harry disembarked the train behind Katie, stepping into the lantern light at Hogsmeade station, where he could see the thin frail form of Professor Grubbly-Plank, the woman who substituted for Hagrid when he wasn't teaching holding a lamp standing near the lake, calling out for the first years to come to her, causing Harry to wonder where Hagrid was

"Come on Harry, let's get to the carriages." She suggested cheerfully, taking him by the hand and weaving through the crowds to get to the front, where Fred and George were waiting for them, somehow ahead of them.

"Come on then, into the carriage." They climbed in one by one, Harry helping Katie into the carriage he saw as moving on its own. Once they were all in and the side door closed the carriage began to move, going away from Hogsmeade quickly and going all the way to Hogwarts in a matter of minutes.

Harry, the twins and Katie made their way up the staircases and through the halls until they found themselves stopped at the doors by Professor McGonagall, as she had stood when he had first arrived at Hogwarts, before the sorting. She stood there, simply staring at them all until finally, the doors swung shut, only the first years still absent, apparently taking longer around the lake than usual.

"All seventh year students please enter the hall and go to your respective house tables. All other students will line up by year, alphabetically, and enter the hall, standing in order of year, with second years on the left, and sixth years on the right." McGonagall called out, and with a flick of her wand, a series of parchment slips appeared in the air, in five straight lines, with names on them.

There was a massive stampede as the students assembled themselves, Harry having been separated from all his friends, standing near the middle of the fifth year line. Professor McGonagall vanished the parchment slips silently, and with another flick of her wand, the doors to the great hall swung open, allowing them in. Harry shuffled along with the rest of the students, staying in the line as they took their places in the center of the hall, seventh years watching them with curiosity.

"Welcome to another wonderful year at Hogwarts. I am sure you will all be wondering why you are not seated at your house tables at this point. I understand that the rumor mill has spread word that the old sorting hat, err…. Violently imploded over the holidays, and I am here to confirm that that is true," Dumbledore's words sent the hall into whispers, dying down when he raised his hands, "Investigations into the event revealed that the sorting hat has been malfunctioning without external signs for a good few years. As a result, the board of governors felt it prudent that there should be a re-sorting of all students sixth year and below, the sixth years being included simply in case there was even one error in that year. Evidence suggests that the majority of the mistakes would be fifth years and below. As your name is called out, please come to the stool where our new sorting hat rests to be resorted."

Dumbledore clapped his hands once and Professor McGonagall began the process with the sixth years. Harry watched intently until Katie was sorted, once more into Gryffindor, before ignoring the majority of the sixth year, which went by with people mostly going back to their own houses. His thoughts drifted to what would happen to his friends, and himself. Would this sorting hat put him in Slytherin? Or in Hufflepuff? He was good in transfiguration, but he didn't think he belonged in ravenclaw. He could be sorted back into Gryffindor for that matter. Hermione he knew had a high chance of going to Ravenclaw. He wasn't sure about Ron. At last the fifth years turns began and Harry paid attention once more, watching as Lavender Brown was sorted into Hufflepuff, then Sarah Fawcett of Ravenclaw was sorted into Gryffindor.

Seamus Finnigan ended up going to Ravenclaw, of all places. There was no mention of Gryffindor again until Hermione stepped up to the stool, sitting down and donning the sorting hat. Harry bit his lip as the hat deliberated.

"RAVENCLAW!" it shouted out, drawing cheers from the older students already seated at the Ravenclaw table. Harry sighed as another person stepped up to the stool, a Slytherin: One Daphne Greengrass.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted out, drawing gasps from the entire hall. A slytherin had been sent to Gryffindor. Indeed, even Daphne herself was surprised.

Harry continued to watch as Neville was sent back to Gryffindor, and then up until the Patil twins went to Ravenclaw. Then came his turn. He walked up to the stool, far more nervous than he had been the first time. He sat down anxiously and placed the hat on his head, immediately able to hear its whispers.

' _What to do with you…? hmm….. Hufflepuff maybe? Plenty of loyalty…. Perhaps not. I can see a brain, but not one that works like the Ravenclaw… Slytherin then? No…. That's not you is it that should go in Slytherin. Gryffindor seems to be a perfect fit. Brave, truthful, honorable, loyal… Scarlet and Gold it is."_ The hat mused, allowing Harry to let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"GRYFFINDOR!" it called out, and Harry immediately stood up, placing the hat on the stool and walking to Katie, who was smiling happily, and the twins who clapped him on the back once each, grinning like idiots. He continued to watch as even Dean Thomas was sent out to Hufflepuff, and then came Ron's turn.

Harry sat in silence, as did the twins, solemn for once as they watched their little brother, as the sorting hat drew a breath and shouted out. "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Harry found himself at a blank. Both Ron and Hermione were gone, heck the only people in the fifth year in Gryffindor who had been there previously were himself and Neville. He noticed how in a corner, a house elf was standing, giving instructions to other ones which continued to appear and disappear. He smiled, wondering whether he should tell Hermione about it, what with S.P.E.W., but then with a sour taste in his mouth, it hit him that he wouldn't see her in the common room. He happened to be sitting opposite Angelina, Alicia and George, the first of whom let out a massive sigh of relief.

"God I nearly had a heart attack when they announced the resorting. At least we retained our team!" she laughed weakly, turning to her food as the first years came in after the second years were done, the final sorting of the night taking place. "Tryouts will be tomorrow at five, before anyone can get detention, and late enough that every student should have seen it. I'll post the announcement on the Gryffindor bulletin boards and I expect all of you to be there."

"I have two words I learnt for you which I learnt from our guests last year." Dumbledore paused for effect, extending his arms and looking around the hall with a merry smile. "Bon appétit."

Harry smiled, digging into his food as he turned to his left and noticed who was sitting there. Next to him were the two new Gryffindors for the year, Daphne Greengrass, a pale skinned girl with blonde hair, blue eyes and an angled jaw, and Sarah Fawcett, a brunette with brown eyes to match and tanned skin. Realizing that he had no one to sit with in classes apart from Neville, who didn't even take all the same subjects as he did, he decided to try and make some new friends.

"Hi." He greeted them, a bit embarrassed at the underwhelming greeting as he looked to his right to face them. "Harry Potter."

Daphne turned to look at him, face showing the barest hint of interest, as though she were a machine analyzing him before responding. "Daphne Greengrass." She held her hand out, palm down, sending Harry's mind racing back to the few lessons in pureblood etiquette Sirius had given him to make sure he didn't get on anyone's bad side. He reached down and kissed her hand, resulting in an impressed look from her, as Sarah Fawcett turned to the left.

"Nice to meet you properly Harry, I'm Sarah, Sarah Fawcett." She extended a hand for a handshake, which Harry gladly shook, noting the amused expression on Daphne's face.

"It's an interesting predicament we're in now isn't it? Most of us are stuck without any old friends in new houses." Daphne remarked, back straighter than a blackboard as she cut into a piece of roast beef.

"That it is, Daphne, if you'll allow me to call you that. I will however do my very best to be a friend to you two. We need to stick together after all; this sorting left only four of us, and we began with eight." Harry grinned, wondering how he was managing to speak calmly.

"I have one question though. Why is it that the two of you don't seem to view me as a lunatic like the rest of the world?" Harry enquired, gesturing at a few people he could see who bore him no malice, yet were glaring at him, or staring at him like he was a madman.

"I learnt very early on not to believe anything printed in the prophet unless my father could confirm it. I'm not saying I believe you, but I'm not saying that you are what the ministry is making you out to be either." With that Daphne turned to her steak.

"To back up her point, you don't really seem like a lunatic, but again, there's no proof of the claims you and Dumbledore have made now is there?" Sarah shrugged, returning her attention to her food once more as well.

Harry sighed. At least it he was sane in their eyes. He had read everything the Prophet had printed about him and Dumbledore since he had moved out with Sirius, noting how they took particular delight in mocking the professor for his removal from first his post as the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and the International Wizards Confederation as well, by after that booting him from the Wizengamot. His mind wandered, thinking about how empty the dorm room would be with only two people, and what it might look like at this stage. Would it magically contract? The upside was that he wouldn't have to wait for a turn in one of the three showers in the restrooms attached to the fifth year dorms.

Harry continued to let his mind drift as he recalled what the sorting hat had said while it was deliberating where to put him. He hadn't really paid attention to it at the time, focusing on praying and hoping to be sorted back into Gryffindor. _'That's not you is it that should go in Slytherin?'_ The words were stuck in Harry's head as he pondered what they meant, utterly confused. His only conclusion was that he might want to get his head checked, but then that would mean the prophet was right and he was a lunatic. Making a decision to ignore the words for now and simply get back to his school life he dug into a piece of treacle tart, when he saw every neck in the hall turn to the front at a sound that he hadn't been paying attention to.

Sitting in the place of the defense against the dark arts teacher, by Professor Snape, was a short squat woman wearing a hideous pink cardigan with a matching ribbon in her hair. She was so short it looked like she was sitting down, even though she was visibly standing up, much like Professor Flitwick, but not as short. She was smiling stupidly, a fake smile no doubt, and her eyes were roving the crowd, settling on individual students. He turned to face her as well, as she began talking.

"It is my pleasure to announce that the Ministry of Magic saw fit to appoint myself, Delores Umbridge as the defense against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts, and I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you very well in classes over the course of the year. Of course, a strong relationship between the ministry and Hogwarts…" Harry zoned out as she started to talk about the ministry and Hogwarts in her high pitched, girlish voice, instead eating his treacle tart idly and staring at the side of Katie's face blankly.

He snapped back to reality as Professor Dumbledore stood up, clapping his hands loudly a few times for the new professor, whom Harry decided looked quite toad-like, and spoke.

"It is my pleasure as the headmaster at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry to welcome back our old students and to welcome our new students for another no doubt exciting year of school. I would like to thank our new defense against the dark arts teacher, Professor Umbridge, for her speech about correlation between the ministry of magic and our institution, and to build up on that, I would like to say a bit more about unity, specifically to our young first years who often follow their senior's blindly and join the war of house rivalry. It is true that it is necessary for Hogwarts to maintain a good relationship with the ministry, but if we are not united on the inside, how are we to withstand anything, let alone ally ourselves with others. With that for you to ponder on, I move on to the next order of business. Traditions are carried on for their tremendous importance, and their age more often, which leads to a hatred of new traditions. However, once all tradition were young, and without new traditions, there will not be any more traditions than there are now in the future. So I wish for you all to give a very big round of applause to our chosen students as we establish a new tradition, which will be to announce our head boy and head girl at the beginning of the term feast so that the whole school may recognize them, acknowledge them, and celebrate with them in their moment of pride." Dumbledore spread his hands, and turned to Professor Flitwick, who gestured at his beard quietly."

"Oh yes, I put the names away for safe keeping." Dumbledore chuckled, reaching into his silver beard and pulling out a small scroll of parchment from the bottom, drawing peals of laughter from the hall. "Head boy for this year is….. From Gryffindor, Christian Alexander!"

Harry joined in the loud cheering from their table as Angelina tensed up. Harry frowned as he saw her, before he noticed that there were _two_ glittering red and gold badges on her robes. One for Quidditch Captain, and another for prefect.

"The head girl for this year is…. Making a scarlet and gold pair, Angelina Johnson!" Dumbledore called out as Harry rose to his feet between Fred and Katie, everyone at the table now roaring loud enough to drown out everything. Umbridge was visibly irritated, Professor McGonagall was doing her best to seem indifferent, but a smile formed on her face and in her eyes and the headmaster was simply watching it all with an amused expression. "Now I trust the seventh year prefects and the head boy and head girl will be able to guide their house members, new and old, to the dormitories. The fifth and sixth year prefects for each house will be appointed within the time frame of one week by their head of house. Good night."

With that the empty plates cleared and the students rose, chattering amongst themselves as Angelina and Christian, a tall, broad shouldered boy with black hair, pale skin and sea green eyes, took the lead of the mass of Gryffindor students and lead them to Gryffindor Tower, where they were given the new password for the year, Mimbulus Mimbletonia. Harry walked in and made his way up the stairs first to see what the dorm looked like now, followed closely by Neville, who had caught up to him on his way out of the hall. He walked up five floors, and to his shock, he saw that that instead of one door into the dormitories, there were two. One had his name scrawled across a slip of parchment fixed to the door, and the other had Neville's.

Still in shock, Harry opened the door to find a small room half the size of dorm he had shared with the other Gryffindors previously. There was a small four poster bed in the corner, with a window on one side, and the wall on the other, with a chest of drawers next to it, his trunk and Firebolt next to it. There was a small bookshelf next to a desk and chair opposite the bed and that was it. The room wasn't big, barely average, but still, he had his own room. He noticed a door between the desk and the foot of the bed and opened it uncertainly, unsure of what to expect. Inside was a small shower stall, a sink and a mirror. He poked his head out the door, and sure enough, the regular bathroom was still opposite it, the placard reading 'fifth years'. He opened the door and saw that it was simply a shrunken version of what it had been previously, with two stalls, a bath stall and a sink. He then noticed that the wall that seemed new, cutting through the middle of the room, had rubber seals at the top and the bottom. Which meant it was detachable. He decided against trying to open it, now or ever. It was nice having his own room at school as well. Hedwig hooted from the open window, catching his attention as she hopped off the ledge. Stroking her feathers affectionately, he took her cage from its place atop the chest and unscrewed the bottom, fixing the small square jutting out from it to the wall next to the door with a sticking charm to make a roost for her. He pulled out the small pouch containing the items he kept on him at all times and set it down on his bedside table, grinning as he unpacked his trunk and fit everything in either the bookshelf or the drawers. Around twenty minutes later, he was ready for bed, and lay down, dozing off instantly as he awaited the first school day of the year.

* * *

Harry rose to the sun shining through his window, not so high that he felt he was late. Picking up his glasses first, and then his wand, he cast a quick spell to check the time and then tumbled out of bed, on time. By the time he had gotten dressed and reached the great hall for breakfast, around a third of the school was awake. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he plopped down at the Gryffindor table and piled his plate high with food, watching McGonagall create and pass out timetables to the students at the table. He had managed to devour two eggs, a few pieces of toast and a sausage by the time she reached him.

"Ah Mr. Potter… Let's see… Here." She tapped her wand to a piece of blank parchment and a timetable drew itself up. Harry gave it a cursory glance as he accepted it, then turned back to it to see the 5th year Transfiguration lessons crossed out in bold red ink. In some of his free periods however, and twice in the place of his old Transfiguration lessons, was a new level, Advanced sixth year Transfiguration.

"Excuse me professor?" Harry turned back to her as she progressed to a fourth year sitting a few feet away from him. "Why are my transfiguration lessons crossed out?"

"I assure you Mr. Potter, I have made no mistakes. Show up in my classroom at the allotted time and I will answer your questions in class. Your new class." She added, turning to the next student down the aisle.

Harry stared blankly at his timetable, wondering what was going on. Then it hit him: Sirius had given the professor a breakdown of what he had taught Harry over the summer and she had placed him appropriately. He grinned, wondering what the class would be like and then got up. He quickly went back to the dorms, collected his books for the day and made his way down to his first class, which, he recalled, was History of Magic with Professor Binns. He grimaced as he racked his brain, trying to figure out a way to compensate for the fact that he could barely stay awake in the spectral professor's classes, especially since he couldn't use Hermione's notes this year. He reached the classroom and joined the line, behind Daphne Greengrass.

"Morning." Harry greeted her, glancing over her shoulder to see Binns float into the class.

"Good morning." She replied, walking ahead to a three person desk and sitting down on the left side Harry, casting his eye around, decided to test his luck with the former Ice Queen of Slytherin and sat down in the middle, waiting as Neville approached and seated himself on his right. Sarah Fawcett was sitting with a few of her former housemates two tables over.

"Trying to figure out how to not flunk out?" Daphne's voice jarred him and brought him back to reality. He raised an eyebrow, surprised, considering he had been thinking about exactly that.

"I'll offer you this for now. You teach me how to fly, and I'll help you with Potions and let you copy my History of Magic notes. And how to cast a Patronus charm for that matter." Daphne cocked an eyebrow, as though daring him to deny he knew how to cast the Patronus charm. Harry on the other hand was elated. One of Snape's best students, and generally one of the best students in the year, had offered to help him for flying lessons and lessons on the Patronus Charm of all things.

"Deal." Harry grinned ear to ear and Daphne pulled out her wand, motioning for the roll of Parchment tucked into his bag.

Baffled, he handed it to her, wondering if she intended to write out her notes twice. She pulled a roll out of her own bag along with her wand and pointed it at the parchments, frowning. A quarter of a minute later, the rolls flashed red. Despite four years of performing magic, Harry's eyes still widened as in intricate calligraphic text, everything the ghostly professor said appeared on the paper in red ink.

"So… Feel free to get a head start on explaining any theory there is to flying, and that of the Patronus why don't you?" Daphne suggested with a smirk, setting the parchments to one side and pulling out a new one, along with her quill.

"Don't bother taking notes for flying. What I can tell you about flying won't be of any use on paper." Harry began, drawing his own wand to show her the movements for the Patronus charm.

The lesson blended in to Harry explaining the Patronus charm to Daphne for the entirety of the lesson and dictating his own understanding of the theory to her. The next lesson was once again Daphne's turn to help him out: Potions.

"The end of this year is marked by your O.W.L.s. I expect nothing but pass grades from every one of you. It is with great pleasure, which I fell will be mutual, that I can announce that I only accept students with O's into my N.E.W.T. classes. A joyful parting between us. One that I will not regret." Snape sneered, his gaze lingering on Harry longer than the other students as he flicked his wands and a new set of instructions appeared on the board. "Moving on. I expect a passable draught of peace from all of you. Your incentive should be the fact that you will be testing your potions when the class ends. Too heavy with your hands and you may find yourself in an irreversible sleep. Get to work."

Harry copied the instructions off the board onto a piece of parchment, determined to show Snape that he could indeed brew a potion properly. Under Daphne's watchful eye, nearly missing an entire line of the instructions, he managed to make the potion. Elated, he pulled out two flagons, filling them both and corking them. He waited until the hourglass Snape had set on his desk ran out two minutes later, and then walked up to submit his flagon, first in line. The seething look of hatred on his sallow face was worsened at the sight of a correctly brewed potion by his least favorite student.

"Each of you will prepare another flagon and test your potion alongside the students at your desk. One student from each desk at a time." Snape's gaze lingered on the potion in Harry's cauldron, and the flagon on his desk.

Harry looked to Daphne who was uncorking her flagon, and without a word, drained it entirely. A few seconds passed and her features visibly relaxed, from the taut, drawn expression she usually wore. Harry nervously picked up his potion, still apprehensive, and pulled open the cork. Knowing his nerves about potions would only delay him, he decided to copy his neighbor and drank it all in one gulp. A few seconds passed, and then it hit his head, a soothing sensation. He felt like he could feel each knot in his back unwind as he felt the sweet aftertaste of the potion in his mouth.

"Go ahead Neville. It looks fine." Harry smiled. He would have been apprehensive when it came to Neville and potions, the only person worse than him in the class, but he had just taken a draught of peace after all, and on top of that it was one that he himself had successfully brewed.

Neville stared at the pewter colored potion in the flagon, and gulping nervously, uncorked it. He pressed the mouth of the bottle to his lips and tilted his head back. A few seconds passed and nothing happened. Neville shook his head when Harry raised an eyebrow. Harry turned to the rest of the class, where more than a few people had fallen asleep. Suddenly, with a thud, Neville's head hit the desk. Harry leaned over and shook him a few times to no avail. Reaching for his wand, he cast the Ennervate spell. Neville woke up, already groggy, and sat up, looking around the class as it occurred to him where he was.

"At least it wasn't irreversible." Harry said kindly, walking with him to Divination, where they passed the lesson interpreting dreams. All of Harry's interpretations were supposedly wrong, and when done by Professor Trelawney, resulted in his death, generally in a spectacularly gruesome fashion.

However, despite Snape's attempts to burn a hole in his head with his glare, and six death predictions from Trelawney, it was really the last two lessons that were the worst: Defense against the Dark Arts with Professor Umbridge. Harry found a place in the class, once again with Daphne and Neville. The squat toad like woman was sitting at the teacher's desk, sipping a cup of tea. She seemed to be wearing yesterday's cardigan, the same hideous pink. Harry caught a glimpse of a glimmering gold pendant with a kitten engraved in it hanging around her neck and in that instant, he realized where he had seen the woman before, and why he hadn't recognized her faster. She was sitting in Sirius's trial, very near Fudge, but she hadn't been very vocal.

"Good morning class." She greeted them as the remainder of the class filed into the room and found their places. A few muffled replies came from around the room and she frowned, clearly unhappy with the response.

"This is unacceptable. I expect proper decorum, and proper dress, from all students in my classes," her gaze lingering on a random Ravenclaw in the back row. "Now I will try again, and I expect clear replies from all of you. Good morning class."

"Good morning Professor." Harry chorused along with the rest of the class. Sirius had given him a breakdown of how bad a ministry official could make his life if he got on their wrong side. He forced himself to keep his back straight, much to the amusement of Daphne. He had noticed that while she barely portrayed her emotions on her face, she wasn't devoid of them.

"Much better. Open your books to Chapter one and begin reading silently please." With a smile that made Harry want to throw up, she turned to her own work at the desk, a few things outlined on the board behind her. Occasionally she would look up to check on the students.

A few minutes had passed, and out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Umbridge frown at someone or something. Following her line of sight, he saw Hermione, who was sitting, book closes, hand raised. Another minute passed in this staring contest, drawing the attention of a few more students. Finally Umbridge gave up.

"Yes, miss….?"

"Granger Professor. Hermione Granger." Hermione replied, the focus of the entire class now on the two of them rather than on their books.

"Is there something you don't understand about my instructions? They were very simple in nature." Umbridge asked sweetly, her lips pursed.

"I simply wanted to ask what to do, because I've already read Chapter one." Hermione replied, drawing a look of surprise from the professor, who nonetheless, replied immediately.

"Then please move on to read chapter two Miss Granger." Umbridge frowned once more as Hermione's hand shot back up into the air. "What is it this time?"

"I've read Chapter two as well Professor." Hermione replied, book still closed.

"Pick up your reading from wherever you have yet to read." Umbridge smiled, but it was evident that she was getting annoyed.

"I've read the entire book Professor." Hermione replied.

This time the shock was evident on Umbridge's face, and she reeled back in surprise. Quickly recovering her composure, she retorted smoothly. "Then I suppose you can tell me what Slinkhard says about….. Hmmm… The basic shield charm."

"Slinkhard says in Chapter six, defensive charms for beginners, that the basic shield charm, with the incantation protego, is a brilliant creation, simplistic and performable by any wizard or witch, which can save lives in every situation." Hermione replied, and Umbridge smiled.

"Five points to Ravenclaw…" She was about to turn back to her work then Hermione spoke up again.

"Slinkhard is however incorrect. The protego charm, while simple in execution, is not something that can save lives in every situation. For the record there are up to six distinct categories of jinxes and charms along with two undefinable chains which can pass through the shield as though it was nonexistent. The charm itself was not simple to create either, and its fabric of conduction for magical energy into a shield is anything but simplistic." Hermione smiled proudly, knowing she had rightfully out argued the author of the book.

"Miss Granger, twenty points from Ravenclaw for speaking out of turn and for the assumption that we are here to understand better a student's point of view, especially one who hasn't even passed her O.W.L.s yet. Essentially you are implying that we should be studying the opinions of students and not Wizards and Witches who have spent Merlin knows how long researching and practicing and have put their knowledge in books for others to use."

Harry saw in her speech something Sirius had trained him to recognize, and to do, which was the to gain the upper hand when surprised, even if the data you happened to be arguing was wrong, which Harry could understand was correct in this situation. Umbridge had first asserted her authority over Hermione by deducting points, and ridiculed her by implying that her explanation was narcissistic and egotistical. Beside him, he could see that Daphne was impressed. Getting on the bad side of any ministry official could be a bad thing, but Delores Umbridge in particular was probably worse than the Minister himself. At least Cornelius Fudge seemed to be thinking in the present rather than planning ahead.

The rest of the lesson passed in silence. Harry glanced at Hermione before the lesson ended, and while she was staring at her book, there was still a look of shock on her face that indicated she wasn't even reading, rather that she was fuming internally. Harry promptly made his way to lunch after the last bell, eating quickly and getting a head start on the homework they had been assigned for the day. It wouldn't do him any good to let it pile up, especially with Quidditch tryouts, and presumably practice in days to come.

It was exactly four forty when he arrived on the pitch through the locker room in his robes, Firebolt in hand. Fred and George were in the air, tossing about what looked like a dormant bludger, bats in hand. Alicia was descending from the hoops, Quaffle in hand, and Angelina was on the ground, looking at a clipboard. Standing next to her, was one person Harry hadn't expected to hear from that year, or see for that matter: Oliver Wood. He walked over briskly, greeting the new captain, second Chaser, and the former captain in turn.

"What brings you back down to Hogwarts?" Harry asked, grinning ear to ear.

"I asked Angelina when she was holding tryouts, and when she said today, I came right on over. My season doesn't start till Wednesday." He replied. "Thought I'd help you lot pick my replacement. Simple penalty shots won't get you the best one. I've told Angelina all the drills, I'll be sitting up in one of the towers."

"Great." Harry turned and walked off a bit, mounting his broom and taking to the sky. He saw a few people trickle onto the pitch, including the Head Boy, and smiled lazily when they saw him. Instead of waving, he sped up, weaving through the hoops one after the other and zipping around the stadium with ease. As he approached the crowd, he tilted the end of the broom down into a dive of rapid acceleration, drawing shouts and a scream. He dove until he was three meters from the ground and then pulled back up, barely avoiding hitting the surface of the pitch. He made his way back into the air and joined Fred and George.

"Reflex Test!" One of them shouted.

Harry turned to see a bat and the bludger hurling towards him. Leaning to one side her grabbed the bat and jabbed at the bludger, missing the front and hitting the underside. What happened next sent him into peals of laughter that nearly made him fall of his broom. The bludger broke into yellow canaries that came out in the form of a very rude gesture before fluttering off forward. Harry suspected that had he hit the front of the bludger he would have been in the middle of the flock.

"I see my money has been put to good use!" he shouted back, tossing the bat to whichever twin lacked one, and going back to lapping the arena. He circled back to the ground, alongside the twins, around ten minutes later.

Angelina was staring tersely at her watch, which read five fifty eight. Katie was still missing and it seemed that everyone who wanted to try out was here. Everyone stood silently as the seconds ticked by until the large needle moved to the last minute to the hour.

"LOOK!" Someone shouted, drawing attention to the figure standing in the entrance to the changing rooms, robes billowing slightly, broom in hand. A smile of relief formed on Angelina's face as Katie took to the air, which then turned to shock, mimicked by most people, as she shot around the stadium at impossible speeds, diving low and snatching the Quaffle out of Alicia's hands before scoring and coming back down to greet her team mates.

"When did you get a Firebolt?" Alicia shouted, staring at the broom in Katie's hands, identical to the one in Harry's.

"Harry gave it to me for my birthday." She shrugged, and all eyes turned to harry.

"It was free." He sighed, not wanting to delve into an explanation of his family assets.

"First person to the posts!" Angelina shouted, deciding to take her mind off it and get on with the tryouts.

An overeager first year approached the hoops, holding a school broom and shakily rose to their height. The chasers took to the air one by one, circling like Vultures as they passed the Quaffle to each other randomly. Suddenly Alicia dove and shot towards the right hoop. Angelina tossed the Quaffle down towards her and the first year moved to the right, his left, missing entirely as the Quaffle went past Alicia, into Katie's hands and through the left hoop.

"Penalty shots now." Angelina called out. The tryouts went on, with the first five players, the first year, two second years and a third and fourth year, missing the instinct shot that the three seemed to take together. Of them, the first year, a second year and the third year, missed every penalty shot after that. The other second year managed to block one, and the fourth year blocked three. The remaining three people seemed to be the real contenders. Well, at least he was told that.

There was a sixth year girl with flowing black hair and pale skin, who managed to block the shot the chasers took together, as well as four of the five penalties. Then there was a tall, sandy haired sixth year who flew up to the goal posts with his chest puffed out. He missed the combined shot altogether, flying down of all directions, and then managed to save one of the following five penalties, shuddering violently as he flew.

"That was Cormac McLaggen." Fred whispered into his ear as they mounted their brooms, getting ready to take off for the next part of the tryout.

"Nasty piece of work."  
"We gave him a bit of spasm syrup."  
"Gets you out of classes under the premonition of violent muscular spasms."  
"Best part is we mixed the cure with the water in his bottle, so he doesn't have anything wrong with him if he pleads foul play." Fred sniggered, taking off as McLaggen lumbered off, taking a large swig from his red and black flask.

The last person to fly was Christian Alexander, the head boy. So far, he seemed to be the best candidate, stopping all but one of the penalties.

"Okay, Christian, Leanne, stay back. The rest of you… bad luck." Angelina called out, watching as everyone but the head boy and the female sixth year departed, McLaggen grumbling the entire time. Harry circled as Angelina ran them through the drills, until she finally called everyone to the center.

"Game time. One beater, two chasers and a keeper a side. Leanne, you've got Fred, me and Alicia. Christian, you've got Harry, Katie and George. Pick sides. And before you say anything Harry, this balances it out. You don't play chaser particularly, and Katie has a broom that can outpace anything except yours. It's fair that way. Split!" Angelina ordered, drifting off to one side as Harry gulped apprehensively. Wood was sitting in a tower adorned with Gryffindor flags, watching the two sides carefully.

The next thirty minutes were a frenzy. The game started and Katie had the Quaffle. She tossed it randomly, leading Harry to believe she was going to use his reflexes and skills as a seeker to their advantage, faux game or not. He caught the Quaffle, smiling as Angelina flew past where he had been previously, looking around. The next fifteen minutes passed in his diving up and down, snatching the Quaffle out of random areas, including the inside of a tower, where Katie tossed it once. By the end of the game, it was sixty to seventy, with the other side leading.

The small, tired group flew down to the pitch's surface as Alicia asked Leanne and Christian to head off for a few minutes. Angelina and Oliver approached, in the middle of heated conversation, bringing them all into it. For the most part, it was the chasers and Wood talking. A few minutes later, by the time the bickering had stopped, the two candidates returned.

"The new Gryffindor Keeper," Angelina held out a set of scarlet robes without any name on them, of a random size. "Will be Christian Alexander."

The robes grew a good bit and Christian took them, his name embroidering itself on the back. "I expect you back next year Leanne, or rather Katie and Harry should. There'll be no one stopping you then." Angelina nodded in her direction. Rather than seeming downcast, Leanne seemed content with it.

Harry turned to walk to the locker rooms, when he saw Umbridge standing on the pitch.

"I believe you students weren't inside at the time of my new decree's announcement." She smiled sweetly, twitching as she stood on the grass.

"Excuse me Professor, but what do you mean by your new decree?" Alicia asked, taking the lead.

"As the appointee of the Minister of Magic, I have the power to make reforms in this institution by the means of Educational decrees. The first Educational Decree by states that all student formed organizations are hereby disbanded, including but not limited to Quidditch, and may seek permission to reform in my office." With that the toad like woman departed, leaving the entire team in shock.


	3. STORY ON HOLD PLEASE READ

Sorry, i just can't manage this ever since I changed schools to a much more demanding place. This story is officially on hold, with the return date being indefinite. I'll try my best to back on track before December, but right now i just can't. Sorry

Spironax


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